Spezia vs Atalanta

Stadio Alberto Picco plays host as Spezia and Atalanta lock horns in an intriguing Serie A encounter.

Coming into this matchday, Spezia succumbed to a 4-3 defeat to Lazio in a topsy-turvy Serie A fixture at Alberto Picco last time out, extending their losing streak in Italy’s top-flight to three matches. Though they’ve lost both Serie A visits to Atalanta by multi-goal margins, Atalanta’s only previous home top-flight meeting with this opposition has yielded a draw. That’s encouraging, as another win/draw could prove enough to mathematically maintain Spezia’s top-flight status beyond the summer. However, lapses of concentration in the latter stages of play have seen the ‘Aquilotti’ conceded a league-high 29 goals in the last 30 minutes of play this Serie A season, highlighting the potential for an action-packed second half.

In the meantime, Atalanta bounced back to hold Salernitana to a 1-1 home draw last time out, stretching their unbeaten Serie A streak to three games (W1, D2). Yet, ‘La Dea’ have now won just one of their eight previous matches across all competitions (D3, L4), scoring under 1.5 goals in six of them. Away from home, only AC Milan and Napoli have picked up more Serie A points than Gian Piero Gasperini’s men (36) this season. Indeed, Atalanta have the highest points difference between points gained on the road compared to home (16), suggesting they could return to winning ways at Alberto Picco.